Beef...It's What's for Dinner

As previously mentioned I have been working very hard to cut back our intake of animal protein, red meat in particular. In the June issue of Environmental Nutrition (thanks for sending Joanne!) there was an article called Meatless Mondays, about how even cutting meat out of your diet one day per week can have an impact on your health and the environment. Here is an excerpt:

"Why aim to eat less meat? Research shows that vegetarians have lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers (breast, colorectal and prostate). Plus eating less meat can help control body weight, because the additional bulk produce and whole grains add to your diet helps keep you fuller on fewer calories. Indeed, vegetarians weigh less, on average, than meat-eaters."

Having said that, when you are craving a big, juicy, flavorful steak there is no frittata or veggie burger on the planet that will satisfy you. So today, I gave in to my craving and picked up two fat rib-eye steaks from the farm stand (hey, at least I went with locally grown meat, right?).

Of course, you can always sprinkle them with salt and pepper, toss 'em on the grill, and serve with a douse of A1 and some potatoes, but I've recently been experimenting with preparations that are still very easy, but offer much more flavor. The recipe below is from my favorite cookbook of all time - Simple to Spectacular by Jean Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. I'll share more on this cookbook at another time because it is truly a must-have for anyone that likes to cook.

I served the steaks tonight with a huge platter of roasted veggies - drizzle olive oil, kosher salt, pepper, and herbs over quartered mushrooms, wide slides of red pepper, chunks of red onion, and asparagus and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until tender (some veggies cook faster than others so keep an eye on them and pull those out as needed). I also made baby artichokes for the first time using a variation of a recipe found on Simply Recipes. I love artichokes but the are an awful lot of work. For the baby artichokes, I trimmed all the tough leaves off to get to the soft, pale green leaves, quartered them, and braised them in about 2 cups of water for 5-8 minutes. I then drained them, put them back in the pan with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and a few pinches of Herbs de Provence. I topped them with shavings of Parmesan cheese. Yum!

Louis Outheir's Steak with Red Wine and Garlic

1 1/2 - 2 bounds boneless rib-eye or sirloin steaks, about 1 inch thick

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 Tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola or grapeseed

5 Tablespoons butter (sorry Deb - this one is most definitely not low cal)

8 Cloves of garlic, peeled and slices thinly

2 Cups plus two tablespoons sturdy red wine

1/2 Cup chopped parsley

1. Sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper. Put the oil and 2 1/2 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-12 inch skillet and turn the head to medium-high. When the butter melts, turn the heat to high and add the steaks. Cook until almost done, 3-4 minutes per side for rare. Turn the heat off and transfer the plates to warm platter in a very low oven.

2. Pour the fat off the pan and return to the stove over medium heat. Add two tablespoons of the remaining butter to the pan; when it melts, add the garlic and turn the heat up a bit. When the garlic begins to brown (about 5 minutes) add 2 cups of the wine and turn the heat to high. Reduce by about two-thirds until the mixture is thick and saucy. Season with a little salt and plenty of pepper, then stir in the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of butter. When it melts, add the parsley and remaining 2 tablespoons of wine.

3. Add the steaks and any accumulated juices to the pan, turn once or twice, and serve.